yeah, no wonder he freaked initially, it IS a lot to take in, but given time and maybe a chat with grampa theo and he´ll be ok – though still angry at brown. screw secrecy, a little heads-up that there might be ‘unusual’ developments in selkie´s future would´ve been nice.
also, i´m looking forward to see this strip in colour – are selkie´s eyes still glowing?

I hate to be the Debbie Downer, but Todd’s facial expressions don’t seem so much “I’ve chilled out” as “Well, crud, I’m overwhelmed, depressed and seriously doubting my own capability to deal with this special child and her situation.”
You can love someone with every fiber of your being but it doesn’t mean you know how to cope with the sudden onset of unexpected and frightening revelations about them. That said, I think if he can get the courage to talk with his parents, or if Agent Brown figures out that what is -right- may not be what is -legal- and can throw Todd some information, Todd will be ok.

Except Brown will have to take Pohl to task for revealing sensitive information. He’s already pushing the envelope a little with what Todd DOES know… and Da Gubbmint might be more pleased to see Selkie remain crippled and powerless from an Echo standpoint, but from a Human Standpoint, only armed with venomous saliva, needle-sharp teeth and a screech that can cause pain and an instinctive fear response.

hey, you’re allowed to feel depressed and tired after a long day of the world dumping all its problems onto you, that will never resolve the issue and you just have to deal with it, because you’re her parent, but that doesn’t mean you’re not gonna do what’s needed

I’m twice divorced with 3 kids, out of the 3 kids the girl in the middle isn’t of my own blood, that doesn’t mean anything other that I can’t donate blood to her or give her my organs in case of an emergency

I never, ever in my life understood why people give blood related bonds more credence over actual bonding with the people you grow up with, my brother is adopted and never found out until I was 18 years old, this made me who I am right now blood means nothing and adopting a child isn’t just a paper, it’s a role you CHOSE to take into yourself, and if you don’t take it head on and with the seriousness the role requires you’re doomed

Amen. Both my brother and I were adopted and my parents are the folks who raised me and cared for me, and my sibling and big brother is the guy I grew up with. I don’t know anything about the bio-mom and bio-dad in my case, and that’s OK. I won’t say they didn’t love me or think about me, but it’s kinda ah eh ok yea feeling not a dire need to know who they were. Different strokes for different folks though – my big bro found his bio-parents and has a good relationship with both bio mom and her kids and bio-dad and his family, so now he has lots of half-sibs and me 🙂

I’m adopted also (one of the reasons I love this comic so) and for me it was a big deal to find my bio parents. It’s not about lack of loyalty to the parents who raised me, they’ll always be mom and dad, but I felt the lack of idk, bio-feedback or something? Maybe I just hate having information withheld “for my own good”, but I fought against sealed records to find out who my bios were and met them two years ago. It has been really amazing, I teared up a bit during this storyline because Selkie going among her own kind and in her element literally reminded me powerfully of my introduction to my maternal relatives and how welcomed and at home I felt.

Sometimes there’s also genetic/family history health considerations that you ought to know about. It’s one thing if the kid doesn’t want to know. But if the kid wants to know, they should have that information available.

Absolutely it should be available if you want it. For me, not that important – I figure hey – I’m here, bio-folks couldn’t raise for whatever reason and I don’t have any burning questions to ask them. Idle curiosity, but that’s about it. With my big bro though, he really wanted to know where he came from and the whats and whys of things – and it turned out awesome for him. So yea, each person should decide if they want to pursue that info, and hopefully the doors will be open for them if they want it.

I think all adoptions should be open. I think people should have a right to know their heritage. Maybe if it hadn’t been a big hush-hush secret I wouldn’t have cared so much but something about being told “no you can’t have it” made me get really ornery about it. I’ve sort of got the opposite, my adopted brother doesn’t remotely care about finding his bios but I cared. I mean I had some health concerns too, but it was more about having to know. Being afraid I was the result of something traumatic bothered me a bunch and wondering what would make someone give up their child, I just had to know. But I am curious as a cat and the sort of person who can stay up all night reading interesting things on wikipedia.

Mikael- No it wouldn’t. Open adoptions would mean less trauma for all the parties involved. Knowing your birth family, even in just photos and letters, would lead to less children of adoption feeling like some dirty shameful secret. Fewer children would feel abandoned and like their birth mother didn’t want them if they got letters every birthday saying they were loved. Birth mothers wouldn’t be walking wounded all of their lives, wondering and never knowing if the baby they gave up is happy and thriving. Even the adopted parents can feel less guilt, not have to feel like they stole someone else’s child away for their own.
You know what prevents abortions if you actually care that much? Birth control and education. But there is no lack of children awaiting adoption. There are foster-homes full of children looking for families, some of them are older, like in this story, or have a laundry list of problems that deter people looking for a cute baby and no complications.

I’m really happy that a) Selkie feels comfortable enough with Todd to raise the topic of ‘we’re going back, right?’ and b) Todd has found the presence of mind to soothe her worries and apologize. He DID kind of fuck up with the ‘NO NO NO I FORBID EVERYTHING’ there and I’m glad that neither Selkie has taken it too seriously, nor he hasn’t buried his head in his ass too deep there.